Glenn Beck
9/24/2013
Senator Ted Cruz has taken to the Senator floor to continue his campaign to defund Obamacare. Cruz said that he would speak “until I am no longer able to stand.”
The Senate is debating a continuing resolution to fund the federal government until December 15th, while at the same time defunding Obamacare. The House passed the continuing resolution last week.
Ask me again why I moved to Texas… #MakeDCListen
Related: CSPAN.org: Senate Debates Continuing Resolution to Fund Gov’t (Live feed Tuesday, 4:30 pm)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has taken to the Senate floor to speak about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the continuing resolution (CR). He said he intends to talk “until I am no longer able to stand.”
Sen. Cruz’s extended speech comes as the Senate debates the motion to proceed to the House-passed CR. Last week, the House voted to fund the federal government through December 15 and to defund Obamacare.
Following today’s party lunches, Majority Leader Reid said that he would strip out language defunding the ACA in his substitute version of the CR and would shorten the funding period from December 15 to November 15. He also said that the final CR vote would likely be on Sunday, though he was “waiting to see” if Senate Republicans would agree to end debate early.
Speaking after the Majority Leader, Minority Leader McConnell told reporters he would vote to proceed on the CR because “what the House sent us is what we wanted,” particularly in terms of defunding the health care law. He also agreed that shortening the debate could be to the House’s advantage in light of the September 30 deadline for passing the CR. However, he added any Senator has the right to ask to shorten the debate if desired.
Possible Time Line on Senate CR Debate
Yesterday, Majority Leader Reid filed cloture on a motion to proceed on the CR which sets up a series of procedural votes, the first to be held on Wednesday. Following this vote, Senators will have 30 hours to discuss and debate the CR. On Thursday, Leader Reid is expected to file another procedural motion that will continue the formal debate on the CR into Saturday.
On Saturday, the Senate will hold another vote to cut off debate and any attempts to filibuster the CR. If Leader Reid gets past the 60-vote threshold, he will schedule a final simple majority vote on his alternative amendment to the CR, and if it passes, the CR goes back to the House.
House Speaker Boehner and the Republican leadership will then have to decide whether to accept the Senate CR or pass yet another version and risk not meeting the September 30 deadline, when current temporary funding for the government runs out.
Also, Mitch McConnell: Ted Cruz’s filibuster would shut down the government and keep ObamaCare funded “I just don’t happen to think filibustering a bill that defunds Obamacare is the best route to defunding Obamacare.”
Update: via PolitiChicks:
Update 2: Support from a Member of the European Parliament:
Delighted to see @SenRandPaul and @TedCruz filibustering. There quite enough laws in the world already.
— Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) September 24, 2013
He just started a few minutes ago, technically this isn’t a filibuster because of some parliamentary rules being used by Dingy…
...Update:
Cruz just making the great point that the Republicans have voted to keep the Government going, just defund Obamacare. That it is Harry Reid and the President that appear to be opting to shut down the government, and Cruz encourages that they not do so, “We do not want to shut down the government”.
If we want to mitigate all the harms that come from Obamacare, we have to stop it now, he argued.
Update:
Cruz: Will we continue to say, “For me but not for thee”?… Exemptions for the “ruling class” but not for hard working people.. We should be here fighting for the people.
Plan B: House may vote to end ObamaCare subsidies for members of Congress and staff
Senator Rand Paul joined the filibuster today.
